Danger Zone One

The following is an editorial from The Pallad City Informer, an independent publication that covers politics, news, entertainment, and current events in Pallad City. [Published two months ago.]

TOO HIGH A COST?

Palladians are paying a high price for failure, and if you think it’s bad now, fasten your seatbelt—it’s only going to get worse.

For years, we’ve heard promises from elected officials that a war on drugs was vital to curbing the drug crisis and, in turn, the ever-rising crime rates. Political lip service offered voters hope that something could be done, but the realists among us were already asking the question: what would be done?

And the answer? Not a hell of a lot!

If I sound angrier than usual—quite a feat, I know—it’s because I’m sick and tired of seeing our city’s future flushed down the porcelain throne. Our recently published article by Curt Shayner, “Getting Higher: A Look at the Statistics,” paints an exceedingly grim portrait of just how desperate the situation has become. Drug use and related crime continue to surge unabated, all the while we’re forced to listen to an endless blame game. The Mayor blames the police, the police claim they don’t have the resources or manpower, and the rehabilitation clinics say that they don’t have enough funding…

Round and round we go because excuses are easy—solutions, not so much. Meanwhile, Palladians face this dire public health emergency alone. Citizens are terrified to walk the streets, fearing they’ll get jumped by some desperate junkie or mugged by the next criminal miscreant that crept from a darkened alley. City parks have become garbage disposals for used needles, autoinjectors, and assorted paraphernalia. Drug-related graffiti has defaced block after block of residential buildings, storefronts, public transport terminals, and any conceivable surface these animals can take a spray can to.

While illicit substances like Nucaine and Sydust are increasingly popular, countless other street drugs have also seen their user bases skyrocket in recent years. And now we get to add a new offender to that ever-growing list: Afterlife.

Yet another substance that pushes already-unhinged addicts into even deeper depths of lunacy, Afterlife doesn’t just provide its user with the typical mind-altering side-effects, hallucinations, or distorted perceptions of reality—it also acts as a super-steroid! Yes, a drug that leads to psychotic behavior and gives an abuser the strength to overturn a vehicle. Expect to read more headlines of Afterlife addicts causing mayhem and murder until they’re eventually pumped with a few dozen rounds by our ill-equipped friends at the PCPD (an actual incident that happened last month!).

I don’t often agree with Mayor Hynden Neville, but he’s right about the issues plaguing this city’s “problem districts” (a term that caught him a great deal of flack from some of our more “tolerant” citizens). Drugs are flowing out of the Ardus, Lago, and Alka Districts like a dam that’s just burst. If the police are so afraid to go into these districts and do their job, then we need to take more drastic action.

Some of our readers have suggested “Kurtowing” the three districts (ie building walls around them and isolating them from the rest of the city). Many others call that plan inhumane. While I do think a Kurtow-style effort would offer some relief in the short term, it won’t solve the overall issue. Instead, more dealers, addicts, and assorted human refuse would find a way to bleed into other areas of the city, only creating new slumlands to peddle and spread their narcotic plague.

So is it all hopeless? No. There is a solution.

Mayor Neville’s bragged about his initiative to hire a private security contractor—Vivid Defense—providing the city with multiple Tactical Armored Units (TAU). Neville claimed the TAU are here to handle extreme cases beyond the PCPD’s ability. Well, the perfect use of their services is sending them into these “problem districts” for a massive clean up. Zero-tolerance enforcement and no-holds-barred methods needs to be enacted—let them get their hands dirty. Being private, they’re not held on the tight leash that binds our existing law enforcement agencies, so let the hounds loose, give them wide berth, and let them do what needs to be done.

If this is really a “war on drugs” then let’s start treating it like war. Isn’t it high time we start winning for a change? Because we’ve taken enough losses and failure is no longer an option.

Obert Kinner
Editor, Pallad City Informer

Danger Zone One. Story by Midnight. Art by Salaiix.